Realignment became necessary because of the Thrashers' move to Winnipeg, but Jets chairman Mark Chipman said he's OK with another year in the Southeast Division.

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In an e-mail obtained by USA TODAY, NHL Player Association general counsel Don Zavelo told NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly on Friday that the NHLPA wouldn't sign off on the realignment because "we lack the information necessary to answer player questions and concerns about the proposal's impact on travel."

Daly, however, told USA TODAY on Saturday: "The deadline didn't come out of thin air. We actually asked for an answer by Tuesday and extended several days to accommodate further discussion."

In December, the NHL board of governors approved realigning the league's 30 teams into four conferences based on time zones. The top four teams from each conference would make the playoffs and the first two rounds of the playoffs would be played within the conference. Every team would play a home-and-home against teams from other conferences.

Because of the lack of an agreement with the NHLPA, the league announced Friday that it would stick with the current six-division, two-conference setup for 2012-13.

In his e-mail, Zavelo acknowledged receiving some league estimates about team travel mileages, but questioned the validity of the formula used to calculate the mileage. Zavelo noted there were unexpected results, such as the Winnipeg Jets traveling even more after realignment.

Zavelo told Daly that the mileage estimates didn't address concerns over how many road trips each team would take, the games vs. off days ratio, the frequency of border crossings and the length of homestands.

"We have explained throughout this process," Zavelo wrote, "that only a draft league-wide schedule would allow players to meaningfully evaluate the potential travel impact of the proposal and determine whether it would be more or less burdensome and unbalanced."

Daly said the NHL gave the NHLPA multiple travel analyses.

"The bottom line is that until you can actually make a schedule, you can't know what each club's travel is going to be," Daly said. "We can't provide something that doesn't exist. We told them what we know for certain is that travel in the Central will be significantly lessened. Travel in the conference with the two Florida teams and Northeast teams will be increased. And the other two conferences will be marginally affected. But we also told them that (NHL scheduling guru Steve Hatze-Petros) says that the new matrix created opportuntities for greater scheduling efficiency. There is no meaningful travel impact."

Zavelo also noted that players continue to object to the "unfair disparity in playoff opportunities" that would result from having two conferences with seven teams and two with eight teams.

That issue was discussed at the board of governors meeting before the realignment vote, but teams signed off because historical evidence suggests that the fight for final playoff spots is far more likely to involve the third- through sixth-place teams rather than the seventh or eighth teams.

The NHL also has history dealing with unbalanced conferences and divisions. In 1993-94 and 1994-95, there were two seven-team divisions in the Eastern Conference and two six-team divisions in the West.

"As we have said on many occasions, there are several ways to resolve this issue, including the incorpora?tion of 'wild-card' teams into round one without adding any additional games," Zavelo wrote to Daly. "We have offered to explore these options with you in order to find a way through but, at least to date, the league has ruled out the possibility of amending its proposal or otherwise revisiting the matter."

At the end of the e-mail, Zavelo said the NHLPA was willing to continue to meet in an "expedited and extended" manner to discuss "assurances" that player concerns would be addressed.

In December, after the proposal was approved by the board of governors, Daly had said that the NHLPA has been offered the opportunity to make its own realignment proposal.

"We asked for their input and they failed to provide any," Daly said. "Once it was approved by the board, we weren't willing to make changes. And, yes, they don't have any right to insist on changes or to insist that it should be bargained."

Realignment became necessary when the Atlanta Thrashers moved to Winnipeg in June. They remained in the Southeast Division, though a move to a more logical position in the West had to be arranged.

Jets chairman Mark Chipman said in a news conference Saturday that he was disappointing about the delay but had been warned that realignment might not be approved in time for next season.

"I told the league that if this were to materialize, we would be willing to go along with a status-quo situation for another year," he said.

He said that travel has been challenging on the team at times this season, but that's because it had assumed the Thrashers' old schedule. He think the Jets will get a better schedule next season in the Southeast.

"Because we're not walking into an already-determined schedule, I talked to the commissioner about this on a couple of occasions, and I believe they'll be fair and very accommodating in terms of scheduling for us next year," he said. "In addition, we'll have our own priority dates established going in."

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